Cousins

What did we go out to see?
You knew who you were, recognised, prophesied, perceived the necessary increase and decrease
Felt your heart leap in greeting at last the sinless Saviour
Filled by the Holy Spirit in your mother’s womb, now standing face to face with your mother’s cousin’s beloved Son
His beginning, the dove descending, did you know to herald your doom?

Far

The garden overlooking the sea
The grassy pathway leading down to the road
Those sunsets, the clear evenings
Such long summers, the stretch of golden beach
Rock upon rock in the dazzling heat
Became as shadows on my childish soul

And I see again clearly the landscape of aloneness
It is like a cold knife touching my skin
But never pierced, I travelled far
And so far on now, I cannot look back and see
That small figure carving figures in the sand
Without the fingers of my hand clutching at the urban air
...